A Day in the Life of Sam Puckett
by Lissa Rae
Summary: How does Sam spend her days? Written for Yuletide 2009.


Sam groaned at the loud buzzing of the alarm clock, coming from across the room - one of Carly's misguided ideas to force her out of bed on time. Luckily, she'd trained for this.

Concentrating briefly, she reached out, grabbed the first solid thing she came across, and flung it at the noisy alarm, successfully hitting the snooze button.

A few moments later, her cell phone rang. She cracked one eye to glare at it, then flipped it open.

"Hmm?" she mumbled.

"Sam, up!" she heard Carly bark, her voice coming tinny and loud through the speaker.

Sam flipped the phone shut and burrowed deeper under the warm blankets, closing her eyes again. Thirty seconds later, it rang again, and she reluctantly answered.

"I'm up, I'm up," she grumbled, pulling the covers down and shivering. She'd forgotten to close the window again last night, and Seattle was not known for its balmy December mornings. "You're a cruel, cruel woman, Carly Shay."

"Yes, but you'll thank me when you have enough time to eat breakfast _and_ catch the bus this morning," Carly said perkily from the other end.

Sam really hated the perky in the mornings.

But she also really loved bacon. And not having to flag a taxi during the morning rush hour.

"Fine," she sighed, and finally rolled out of bed. "You're right, I'm wrong, and now I'm actually up."

"Good girl. See you at school."

She closed her phone and stepped into her fuzzy bunny slippers, then shuffled into the bathroom to get ready. It was going to be a long fricken' day, and she was _not_ looking forward to it.

Sam _was _thankful that she'd had enough time to cook her bacon and still catch the bus. Not the school bus, only losers rode that, but she was able to run and catch the Sound Transit bus. There were two benefits to taking mass transit. First, by running to catch the bus, she'd done her cardio for the day, and wouldn't feel guilty about skipping gym later on. And second, it meant she got to see Shirley, the nice lady who worked a few blocks from school and who always brought an extra cinnamon roll with her in the morning, just in case Sam was there. Sam liked Shirley, and not just because of the free food - Shirley was a little bit crazy, and told the best stories. Plus, she always asked Sam about what boys she liked, and she watched _iCarly _every week with her grandkids. Sam tried to explain once that _iCarly _really wasn't aimed at two-year olds, but apparently the kids really liked Random Dancing. Hey, who doesn't?

She got off the bus when it reached school, scarfing down the rest of her cinnamon roll. Mmm…cinnamon rolls and bacon - the breakfast of champions. The bus had been slow, and she was running late, not that she cared much. Ms. Briggs always sent her straight to Principal Franklin's office as soon as she got there, anyway, just on principle. The bell was ringing as she walked in, and she poked her head into homeroom, waved at Carly, and then headed to the office.

"Mornin' Ted," she said, plopping herself into the cushy visitor's chair in front of the principal's desk.

"Sam," he nodded at her without looking up from his paperwork. "And it's _Principal Franklin_," he added. "At least at school. We've talked about this."

Sam rolled her eyes and yawned. "So, how's about you just give me detention and we move on with our days?" she asked.

"Late to class again?" he asked, and she nodded. "Fine. How does detention on Wednesday sound?"

She thought a moment. "Should work for me. So, how are the kids?"

They chatted for a few minutes, then Sam went back to class, rolling her eyes when Ms. Briggs glared at her.

The rest of the morning passed in much the same way - Sam sometimes getting to class on time, but mostly late, being glared at by a few more teachers. Mr. Howard actually sent her back to Principal Franklin's office, where she scheduled an additional detention for Thursday afternoon and caught up with Doris, the school secretary. She saw Carly and Freddie briefly in passing between classes, but didn't get a chance to hang out with them until lunchtime.

Lunchtime. The only reason for going to school, in Sam's opinion. She'd bought some Slim Jims off Rip-Off Rodney between second and third periods (which is why she'd been late to Mr. Howard's class), but she was, as always, hungry again. Mrs. Benson said a few weeks ago that she thought Sam might have a tapeworm, and had refused to let Freddie hang out with her, which had led to three blessedly Freddie-Free days, until he'd rebelled, gotten grounded for an hour, escaped, gotten grounded for another hour, then showed up again like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. She and Carly hadn't said anything, because, really, it _wasn't_ all that out of the ordinary for Mrs. Benson. Because that chick was _CRAZY_.

She arrived in the cafeteria, only to be treated to Gibby, dancing on a table, waving his shirt in the air. Again, not that out of the ordinary.

Her classes after lunch were…blah blah blah. She didn't even remember. She'd borrow notes from Carly later, maybe. Probably not.

After school, she went to detention for the food fight she started two weeks ago. That was awesome - she'd gotten a slice of bologna perfectly centered over Gibby's belly button. He'd been hula dancing on the table, shaking his pudgy little belly, and she just couldn't resist. Gibby was weird.

From detention, she'd made a stop at Groovy Smoothie for a drink and a pickle-on-a-to-go-stick from T-Bo, then gone up to Carly's apartment. Spencer was there, working on a giant statue of Andrew Jackson made out of cheddar cheese. She picked a cheese button off his sleeve as she passed by, and headed up to the studio, where she spent the next few hours planning sketches for the next _iCarly_. Or, she _pretended_ to listen as Carly and Freddie planned sketches. In her head, she planned her next attack on Nevel Papperman - he hadn't done anything lately, but she knew the evil little freak was probably up to something. Better to be prepared.

Carly made them spaghetti tacos for dinner, and Sam decided she should probably stay for a few hours, just to make sure she wasn't traveling on a full stomach. It was best to wait at least an hour before riding the bus - you never knew what smells you'd come across on public transportation. The three of them had curled up on the couch to watch _Drake and Josh_ reruns (Freddie always thought it was weird how the little sister looked like Carly, but acted like Sam), and Sam woke up around 2:00 a.m. to tangled legs and Freddie's snoring. She thought about getting up for a snack, but it was warm and snuggly on the couch, so she stayed where she was. Morning, perkiness, and breakfast would come soon enough.


End file.
